


Golden Cage

by AssassinorActressWhoKnows



Series: The Fire Empire [4]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - The Fire Nation Won, Concubine, Emotionally unstable, Everything Changed When The Fire Nation Attacked, F/M, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Manipulation, Master/Slave, Sapphire Fire, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Unhealthy Relationships, hidden past, servant - Freeform, slave - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:42:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27700876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AssassinorActressWhoKnows/pseuds/AssassinorActressWhoKnows
Summary: After trying to convince the prince not to take her to the colonies with him- Katara is stuck facing her punishment. But how much isolation can one waterbender take before things turn south?
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: The Fire Empire [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1591687
Comments: 5
Kudos: 60





	Golden Cage

**Author's Note:**

> Hello lovelies💙 I hope everyone is doing alright💙💙💙
> 
> This is a dark series and everyone in it has trauma/not the best coping mechanisms... Katara’s really show more in this one so if it (or mentions of self harm/suicide) could possibly be triggering to anyone I’m going to put the highlights at the end💙

Two days. For two days, Katara was locked in her room. The first night was fine, she had assumed that the prince would get over his anger enough to ask for her the next day, and that she could then ‘apologize’ for her ‘behavior’. But when servants brought her her meals, without responding to anything she said to them (not to mention the loud click of the lock on her door every time the guards, who also wouldn’t respond to her, closed the door), she lost hope of the prince letting go of his grudge.  _ Guess I really hurt him there, huh? Hope he still wants to keep you, Katara. It’d be a shame if you finally ended up in prison. You need his protection, you foolish girl. The palace... _

The second night, Katara’s anxiety grew worse and worse. Every worst case scenario that could possibly come to mind, did. Katara’s previously exhausted waterbending was slowly coming back to strength, and with its return came the bender’s fear of losing control of it with her rising panic- and so her anxiety and panic continued to spiral. She attempted to mimic her old training to calm down and eventually fell asleep, but with it came a series of memories that had her waking up screaming.

At one point on the third day, she attempted to sit down and do her makeup, hoping the habit and care would help return her focus. Instead the continuous staring at her own face left her with nothing but a broken mirror and a hand that needed healing, if only she could care enough to do it. 

She called for a bath and just sat on her bed waiting. She paid no mind to the servants who came in carrying the heated water to fill her tub, ignoring them as they stared at the mirror and the blood and whispered together. She simply waited for them to leave before stripping and stepping into the bath in her washroom. 

She sat there, her hair piled on her head as she soaked in her element. The water glowed around her and her hand was quickly healed. The water continued to take away her pained joints and weariness and Katara decidedly lifted a water filled palm to her temple and set to work on what mind healing she could attempt in her state.

_ You’ve forgotten how to take care of yourself, Katara. It’s been too long since you healed yourself… _

And so Katara sat, for how long she didn’t know. The process of mind healing was difficult… especially on oneself. However, she was interrupted by the doors of her bedroom being flung open.

“Sapphire?” The prince’s voice called frantically. Katara quickly stopped healing herself and waited for the prince to come in, her back to the open doorway. The waterbender heard him run to the washroom, the sound of his feet on the tile the only sound in the room. “Sapphire,” he breathed desperately, before running to her. 

He rushed to kneel behind her, grabbing the girl’s arm to inspect her. 

“What are you doing?” She exclaimed as he pulled on her other arm. Scanning over it for something. She turned to face him as he continued to check her.

“What the hell were you thinking, Katara?” He was angry, at what now Katara didn’t know.

“I was thinking I would take a bath! I’m so sorry if requesting water was something on your list of things I wasn’t allowed to do!” She crossed her arms over her chest as he stared at her.

“Stand up, now.” He ordered.

“This isn’t funny, Zuko.”

“No one’s laughing. I’m not asking you. Get out now.”

Katara stood up indignantly and stepped out, water rippling and dripping from her body.  _ What is going on? Why the hell is he doing this? _

“Your Majes-”

“No.”

“Zuko-”

“Katara.” He interrupted her again, looming over her and holding her jaw in his hand. “Did you think the servants wouldn’t find your actions suspicious enough to come to me?”  _ No. They couldn’t have seen me bend, I was so careful. _

“Zuko I can-”

“And did you think you could  _ ever _ harm yourself without any sort of repercussion?”

_...What? _

“Because I certainly didn’t think my company was so bad you would think killing yourself was better than having to travel the world with me!”

Her hand hit his face before she knew what exactly it was she was doing. Pushing him away as he stared at her, burning hot anger in his eyes. 

“How dare you, accuse me of that. After  _ everything  _ we’ve done together, everything I’ve told you. How dare you-”

“You think I didn’t see the blood myself?”  _ What bloo- oh…  _

“Zuko… I was angry and I broke the mirror. I cut my hand on it but it’s already healed. I wasn’t going to do anything else.” The two stared at each other and Katara was increasingly aware of her nakedness in front of him. “You already checked, you know I don’t have any wounds.”

“There was too much blood.”

“Hands bleed. Zuko. And I heal quickly. Your bruise on my arm is already gone too.” Her misdirection worked as he noticeably paled at her words.

“I bruised you?” He asked, barely above a whisper as he stared at her arm as it covered her chest. Katara felt the pull of the water with her movements and stilled, hoping the prince didn’t notice the now rippling water.

“Just enough. It’s completely gone now, but my lesson has been learned, Your Majesty.”

“I didn’t mean to-” 

“You had every right to do much worse to me, Your Majesty. I am your concubine and I behaved out of turn. You had every right to punish me as you saw fit.” 

Suddenly, Zuko was on his knees. The Crown Prince of the Fire Empire was on his knees, in front of Katara. A naked Katara, dripping water that he was now kneeling in. Before her. In her bathroom.  _ Next thing you know the avatar will be back and my brother will be alive, and they’ll show up to the palace and we can all go save the world- what else is on my list of impossible things I thought would never happen?  _

“I owe you more than an apology.”  _ This. This is on the list.  _ “What I did was out of anger and it was wrong. I never should have lost my temper the way I did. I never should have locked you away. I never should have been so angry that I grabbed you hard enough to bruise you. I never should have left you in a position where you harming yourself was a plausible option. I’m sorry, Sapphire. Suffering,” he looked up at her, holding her gaze as he spoke. “Suffering will  _ not  _ be your teacher. Never again.”

Katara didn’t know what to do or say. Katara didn’t like how often the prince left her not knowing what to do or say. Katara didn’t like how vulnerable they both were to each other and Katara was tired of lying. Tired of being angry and scared. Tired of letting her past haunt her. 

But the prince had never hurt her, been nothing but kind to her, besides  _ that _ night. The night she decided to push him till he broke so that she could be safe.  _ I’m safe with him though, aren’t I? His protection is what keeps me safe in the palace. If I go with him, no one would dare try to take me- no one would think I was even me. What terrorist would willingly lay in the prince’s bed? And he’s kind. So unbelievably kind… _

Katara joined him, kneeling on the tiled ground, and taking his hands.

“I.. would like to finish my bath.” Katara stated. The prince jolted at her words, mouth open as he processed what she said and that she was still nude. 

“Absolutely,” he stated, preparing himself to stand. “I will leave you alone and we can-”

“No.” She interrupted him, not letting him move from where he was. “I’m not done. I’m being real with you and honest about what I want. Okay?”

“Yes, Sapphire. Please, continue. I won’t interrupt again.” He rushed out. 

“I would like for someone else to take care of the mess I made of my vanity. I would like you to heat up my bath water for me and to stay with me until I am done. I would like for us to discuss where we will be going and what will be expected of me as we travel. And,” she continued, trying to gage his reaction as she spoke, eyes starting to tear. “I would like for you to not leave me locked up in here alone like that again. Because that really, really sucked.” Her voice broke and he pulled her into his arms, holding her as she cried. “Absolutely, my Sapphire. Is there anything else you would like? Everything in the nation is yours to ask for.”

“Sea soup with extra crab. And I want you to rub my neck while I bathe.” He chuckled softly in her ear before standing them up. 

“That can be arranged, my jewel.” 

The prince helped her back into the bath and Katara slumped against the edge as soon as he left to take care of her requests. The waterbender breathed deeply, a strange calm enveloping her after the chaos she had experienced **.** _ No more. Nothing like this will happen again.  _ Katara felt a hand fall into the water and moaned gently as the water heated. The warmed hand then sat against her neck, and Katara opened her eyes to see the prince knelt behind her. 

“Shh, close your eyes. Relax.” The prince lulled her into relaxation as he continued his ministrations and told her his plans for travel. “And of course we’ll need to start by making a couple of stops on the islands to prepare the ships, see the people. I thought perhaps our first port could be your village.” 

“My village?” Katara tried to turn to look at the prince but he kept her still as he continued to massage her neck.

“I thought it’d give you a chance to say goodbye properly, make sure you haven’t left any loose ends that need tying.”

“I guess… it wouldn’t hurt to say goodbye to the inn. One last time.”

“It’d be nice to visit where we first met before we left, don’t you think?”

“Of course, Your Majesty.” 

Zuko pressed a kiss against her shoulder before standing up and grabbing her dressing robe. 

“Come, let’s get some food in you, Sapphire.” 

Katara got out of the bath and was helped into her robe by the prince, before returning to her bedroom.

_ You knew you couldn’t stay away from me, you foolish girl _ , Hama’s ever present voice rang.  _ Even dead, you can’t escape me, Katara. _

**Author's Note:**

> So I honestly did not think this was how the fic was going to go when I started writing it... I definitely thought Iroh was going to sneak in at some point but that didn’t happen😂 I also thought this would be the beginning of their travels but decided that the two of them needed to sort through some of their issues before they actually headed out.
> 
> Everyone please stay happy and healthy🥺💙 drink some water and take care of yourselves in any way you can
> 
> Highlights for anyone keeping up with the series who didn’t want to risk triggers:   
> -Katara spends three days locked in her room  
> -she punches her mirror and it breaks/cuts her hand  
> -she requests a bath and servants come in and see what she did  
> -she heals herself and does some mental healing *a la Jet* on herself   
> -she’s interrupted (but not caught) by Zuko who thought she was self harming/k*lling herself because of him  
> -the two hash it out and he apologizes to her  
> -she concedes going and their first stop is going to be the inn that Katara owned, in the village that they met  
> -the inn... in the Fire Nation...👀👀👀  
> -yes Hama’s inn that Katara owned because Hama is dead,, and she’s the deprecating voice that Katara hears


End file.
